There are a couple of very close races in Hamilton ridings. Pictured: Flamborough-Glanbrook PC Candidate Donna Skelly. Photo Credit: Donna Skelly/X.
With Ontario Premier Doug Ford calling an election for Thursday, Feb. 27, the province is now set to go to the polls one year and four months earlier than expected.
Ford says that he needs “a strong, four-year mandate that outlives and outlasts the Trump administration” in order to “protect Ontario.”
While election day is the 27th, in-person voting is available now until Wednesday, Feb. 26 at each riding’s local election office.
Additional advanced voting locations in each riding will be open from Thursday, Feb. 20 to Saturday, Feb. 22.
Ford is up against Bonnie Crombie of the Ontario Liberals, Marit Stiles of the Ontario NDP, and Mike Schreiner of the Ontario Greens.
Smaller political parties like the conservative-minded New Blue Party led by Jim Karahalios and the Ontario Party led by Derek Sloan are also running a large number of candidates across the province.
Voters can visit each party’s website for their policy announcements.
The City of Hamilton has five different ridings. Here’s a breakdown of each riding and who is running:
FLAMBOROUGH-GLANBROOK
- Donna Skelly, PC Party of Ontario (Incumbent)
- Joshua Bell, Ontario Liberal Party
- Lilly Noble, Ontario NDP
- Janet Errygers, Green Party of Ontario
- Kristen Halfpenny, New Blue Party
The Flamborough-Glanbrook riding encompasses most of rural Hamilton. The riding includes the communities of Carlisle, Freelton, Millgrove, Waterdown, Rockton, Lynden, Jerseyville, Mount Hope, Binbrook, and Upper Stoney Creek.
The riding was first created in 2015. Skelly has held the seat since its creation, earning 43.5 per cent of the vote in 2018 and 46.2 per cent of the vote in 2022.
According to current projections from Politico poll analyst Philippe J. Fournier, who runs the site 338Canada, the riding is a safe PC seat, with Skelly currently projected to get about 53 per cent of the vote.
HAMILTON CENTRE
- Sarah Bokhari, PC Party of Ontario
- Eileen Walker, Ontario Liberal Party
- Robin Lennox, Ontario NDP
- Lucia Iannantuono, Green Party of Ontario
- Mitch Novosad, New Blue Party
- Sarah Jama, Independent (Incumbent)
- Nathalie Xian Yi Yan, Independent
The Hamilton Centre riding includes the entire lower city from the 403 until Kenilworth Avenue. It encompasses Downtown Hamilton, the North End, and the western part of East Hamilton.
The modern-day iteration of the riding has been held by the Ontario NDP since its creation in 2007, with Andrea Horwath winning five straight elections. After she resigned, Sarah Jama won the NDP nomination in the riding but was then kicked out of the party. She is running again as an Independent.
The Ontario NDP nominated physician Robin Lennox, who appears to have many of the same views as Jama and regularly retweets Councillor Cameron Kroetsch, who is a Jama supporter.
According to Fournier’s current projections, the riding is a likely NDP seat, with Lennox currently projected to receive 35 per cent of the vote, while the PCs are projected at 22 per cent, Liberals at 17 per cent, and Jama at 15 per cent.
HAMILTON EAST-STONEY CREEK
- Neil Lumsden, PC Party of Ontario (Incumbent)
- Heino Doessing, Ontario Liberal Party
- Zaigham Butt, Ontario NDP
- Pascale Marchand, Green Party of Ontario
- Wieslawa Derlatka, New Blue Party
- Heather Curnew, Ontario Party
- Drew Garvie, Communist
The Hamilton East-Stoney Creek riding consists of the lower city from Kenilworth Avenue to the Grimsby border and also includes the Beach Strip.
Since the riding was created in 2007, it was won by the NDP’s Paul Miller in four straight elections. Miller was controversially removed from the NDP in March 2022.
Miller ran as an Independent in the riding in the 2022 election and received 6.86 per cent of the vote. Meanwhile, the NDP ran candidate Zaigham Butt and saw their share of the vote decrease by 23.82 per cent compared to 2018 with only 27.34 per cent support received. PC candidate Neil Lumsden came out on top with 34.60 per cent support.
According to Fournier’s current projections, the riding is a likely PC seat, with Lumsden expected to receive around 42 per cent of the vote, the Liberals around 27 per cent and NDP around 23 per cent.
HAMILTON MOUNTAIN
- Monica Ciriello, PC Party of Ontario
- Dawn Danko, Ontario Liberal Party
- Kojo Damptey, Ontario NDP
- Joshua Czerniga, Green Party of Ontario
- Layla Marie-Angela Protopapa, New Blue Party
- Bing Wong, Ontario Party
- Dan Preston, None of the Above Direct Democracy Party
- Ejaz Butt, Independent
The Hamilton Mountain riding runs east-west from about West 5th to just past Dartnall Road.
The riding has been held by all three parties over the years, with the PCs last winning in 1995, the Liberals last winning in 2007 and the NDP’s Monique Taylor dominating the last four elections. However, Taylor has decided not to run again, instead opting to seek the federal NDP nomination. That leaves the riding without an incumbent. Meanwhile, the NDP has replaced Taylor with Kojo Damptey, a controversial activist who has expressed support for abolishing the police multiple times.
According to Fournier’s current projections, the riding is currently an NDP/PC toss up, with the NDP projected at around 37 per cent support and the PCs at 35 per cent.
HAMILTON WEST-ANCASTER-DUNDAS
- John Demik, PC Party of Ontario
- Julia Brown, Ontario Liberal Party
- Sandy Shaw, Ontario NDP (Incumbent)
- Guy Bisson, Green Party of Ontario
- Lee Weiss Vassor, New Blue Party
- Nori Smith, Electoral Reform Party
- Spencer Rocchi, None of the Above Direct Democracy Party
The riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas includes parts of both the upper and lower city including Ancaster, Dundas, parts of the West Mountain, Westdale, and McMaster University.
The riding was created in 2015 and has always been won by the NDP and their candidate Sandy Shaw. Shaw won in 2022 with 40.42 per cent of the vote compared to 32.99 for the PCs.
According to Fournier’s current projections, the riding is currently a PC/NDP toss up, with the PCs projected at around 36 per cent support and the NDP at around 34 per cent.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
